Living in Bhutan

Bhutan guards its economy as carefully as it guards much else, and it does not open easily to people arriving from outside. Pay sits toward the lower end of the world while the cost of getting by runs closer to the middle, so a salary has to work harder here than the pay alone suggests. Light tax is what saves the modest margin, leaving almost everything earned in your hands. English has a real foothold in parts of working life, but a newcomer should still expect a narrow door.

Bhutan's migration runs in both directions on a small scale, tilting slightly outward. About 66.1K Bhutanese live abroad — a diaspora up 38% over the decade — settled mainly in Nepal, Australia, and India. At home, the foreign-born number around 51,000, the great majority of them from India, the country's dominant partner in movement as in much else.